50 Cent: Bulletproof [Xbox]

Check out 50 Cent in Get Rich or Die Tryin' on Yahoo! Movies.

Life on the streets can look bad-ass glamorous from a safe distance, but it's full of pitfalls and hard, depressing facts of life. This might have been the street philosopher approach to this thugged-up, funhouse-mirror approach to 50 Cent's life... unfortunately, it's also a fair assessment of the game itself. There's no doubt that the hardcore fans will want and appreciate Bulletproof as a pure enthusiast product, but there are some definite bullet-holes to scar the game experience.

Bulletproof is a good-looking but surprisingly linear game, branching objectives fused at a by-the-book hub -- there's no Grand Theft Auto-style free roaming world here (which is, itself, a real street-crime).

Bulletproof's moments of brightest light include great virtual incarnations of not only 50 Cent but Tony Yayo, Young Buck, Lloyd Banks, and a certain "Shady" white boy (whom some have called the "blackest man in America.") They play heavy-to-ludicrous exaggerations, or other characters entirely (Em is a dubious detective, which is almost too perfect), but that's what image is all about.

More importantly, Bulletproof sports an enormous amount of extra goodies, like exclusive 50 Cent tracks, many mixes and remixes, and videos. One thing's for sure -- to accumulate the equivalent amount of various and sundry bonus content, you could spend a lot more money elsewhere, instead of on this one, shrewdly dense enthusiast game. These are certainly compelling reasons to keep playing.

Or perhaps that should be enduring. Those "moments of brightest light" start turning out to be the bubble-flashes of oncoming police cars fairly early. Perhaps the first clue should be the hub, a safe place to load and/or gun up -- should any hard-streets game really have a form of sanctuary?

Those flashes turn into audible, shrieking sirens once the mechanics start getting in your face. The aiming -- basically, the most crucial aspect of the engine -- is frustrating to control. Small adjustments when you're under pressure and trying to keep a bead on a moving target become nigh-impossible.

There's a game-balance equation to be constantly observed, and if the targeting trouble were the only problem, Bulletproof would come off much better. However, when you add the irritant of inexplicably spawning enemies -- haven't we evolved beyond this? -- the idea of coolly tracking foes or even properly using cover becomes throw-the-controller frustrating. No amount of bonus content can balm over that. Overly sensitive positional requirements to use environmental items don't help, either.

The disarming, Counter Kill scheme ultimately gives you some 30 disarming moves (available at very reasonable prices!), and is needlessly brutal. If you must get into close-combat range, this is the way to go.

With some excellent stylistic elements and a buttload of goodie content, you want the core game to raise the roof. The roof, in fact, collapses on you many times, and God knows what the elements (and birds) have left up there. If you're a hardcore Fiddy Fan, it's a workable but frustrating game with a treasure-trove of content. If you wouldn't give 50 cents for 50 Cent anyway, you can safely pass by this below par crime-shooter.